What was Atatürk's goal in education and training?

The painful and heartbreaking events that took place in our schools in Urfa and Maraş hit the agenda like a bombshell. One teacher and eight students tragically lost their lives following an armed attack by another student.

Schools have been left unattended. Security has been neglected, and students have been neglected.

Are we giving our schools, our students, and our children the importance they deserve? We are not. If we had given them the necessary importance, we would not be experiencing these tragedies in Maraş and Urfa. 

So why have we come to this state? The moment we drifted away from Atatürk's principles and revolutions, that is when the collapse began. Not just in education, but in every field. I can almost hear those asking, "What do these events have to do with Atatürk?" They have everything to do with Atatürk.

Have you ever heard such a magnificent statement from those who govern this country?

"Saving the homeland begins with protecting the children." We haven't heard it. But Atatürk said it a century ago. It is impossible to hear it from today's leaders anyway. Some lift children by their heads, some give them pocket money as if to humiliate them, and some hit them on the head.

Yet, in 1922, when Atatürk went to Bursa, he leaned down to the children and primary school students who welcomed him with flowers and said, "You are the rose, the star, and the light of fortune of our future. You are the ones who will truly bring the country to enlightenment. My daughters, my children, we expect much from you." Then he paused and thought, and asked, "You will work very hard, won't you?" The children replied in unison: When they promised, Atatürk turned back to the children and said, "Whatever we did, we did for you. We did it for your happiness and your honor. We did it so that you may walk with your heads held high and not be anyone's servant or slave. We did it so that you would never experience these painful days again." And Fevzi Pasha, who was standing next to Atatürk, had tears in his eyes at this sight.

Atatürk did not look at children through the eyes of a student. He looked at them as the homeland itself. He valued them as much as this homeland. He would address them as "Little ladies, little gentlemen!"

He would not grab them by the head like some do. Or humiliate them by giving them pocket money. He treated children like adults. He used to say, "Today's little ones are tomorrow's grown-ups."

Atatürk also pondered on how children should be raised.

According to Atatürk, a child was raised by an educated, knowledgeable, and cultured mother. In 1916, while he was the Commander of the 16th Army Corps, he noted the following regarding the organization of social life with his Chief of Staff under the Silvan Malabadi Bridge:

"To raise a strong mother who knows life, to give women freedom."

Is it like that today? Today, parents put guns in their children's hands and have them practice shooting at firing ranges. 

Well, was it like this in the Republic? It was not. Those hands did not hold guns. They held mandolins, they held violins. Those hands played the piano.

Even before the Republic was proclaimed, in 1923, at the İzmir Economic Congress, Atatürk said, "We must educate and teach our children in such a way, we must give them such knowledge and instill such culture in them, that they will be useful, effective, and hardworking in trade, agriculture, art, and all fields."

Now we look, there is no work. There is no effort. There is no striving. There is only locking oneself in one's room and playing computer games until the morning. We look at the situation of the serial killers who commit murders in schools; it is the same. Without working or tiring themselves, they shut themselves off and become slaves to the internet. They are influenced by the armed games and violent series there. Whereas Atatürk had directed children, starting from their mothers and fathers, toward science, culture, art, nature, botanical and zoological gardens, and conservatories.

And he had said this;

He stated that "for a practical and comprehensive education and training, it is necessary to establish modern libraries, botanical and zoological gardens, conservatories, art schools, museums, and exhibitions related to fine arts in important centers within the borders of the homeland."

He said that the entire country, down to the district centers, should be equipped with printing houses.

This was his dream. Because he knew that the Enlightenment in Europe gained momentum with the opening of theater and art centers. The veil of reason in Europe was lifted with the realization of these centers. Thus, thinkers and scientists such as Descartes, Pascal, Thomas Hobbes, Spinoza, and Leibniz were raised in Europe, for example, in the 17th century.

However, we look at today's Turkey, and it is the exact opposite. Demolished theater buildings, closed orchestras, art schools and libraries, museums on the verge of extinction, books collected before they are even printed, writers, intellectuals, and thinkers taken from their homes in the twilight of the morning without question and thrown into prison. 

In today's Turkey, massacres and murders are never-ending. Because an intelligent society is not being raised. Because we are an uneducated society.

Why have we come to this state today? We have come to this state because we have deviated from Atatürk's education system.

Atatürk says in his Handbook of Civil Knowledge; "The state is very much concerned with the education and training of its citizens. And generally, education is carried out under the control of the state and within the framework of its programs."

Now we look, is the state concerned with education? No.

The state is not concerned with schools.

As Atatürk said, for a proper education and training, modern libraries, botanical and zoological gardens, conservatories, art schools, sports schools and gymnasiums, orchestras, operas, and ballets must be established. Museums and all exhibitions related to fine arts must be established.

Otherwise, our children who are massacred in those schools will not be a "wailing wall" for state officials today, nor will they be a "forgotten event" tomorrow.

As Atatürk said, the state must personally and immediately deal with all children and all the problems of the schools.